Yarra City Council
Gabrielle DE VIETRI (Richmond) (11:26): Ripping up bike lanes for more car parking, cancelling the construction of a new public park outside a library, giving over public land to private developers, tax breaks for property owners and extra cops to police our young people at night – these are policies that you would expect from Trump if he woke up in the middle as mayor of a progressive town. But believe it or not, these are all things that Yarra council has agreed to this week. The new mayor and his bunch of conservative independents have wasted no time in bulldozing progressive initiatives that the Yarra community and the Greens have been proud to pioneer. Their à la carte politics is totally rogue, and it is very concerning. They are cutting projects for the community while asking the council to give them money to eat out at restaurants every fortnight. They are recklessly spending on their pet projects, and for personal gain. All of this was rushed through with absolutely zero consultation. Jolly has signalled his priorities for this council term, and it is cars, property investors and pearl clutchers. If you are none of these, rise up and tell him this is not how we do things in Yarra.